Several forms of two component devices exist, comprising more than one receptacle, the most common of which is the side-by-side device. Such cartridges cause a disposal problem as they are rigid and bulky, and there is a substantial waste of plastics material.
There is a still increasing need for packaging, dispensing and applying such systems in an environmentally most friendly manner, as well as for the most reliable, efficient and cost effective way. Attempts have been made to use foil laminates as packaging media for single or two-component liquids. These packages will collapse inside a cylinder during dispensing and are compressed to a minimum size.
One example of it is disclosed in the WO-91/07333 which shows also two-component coaxially arranged bag cartridges with separate outlets united in one outlet. However no means for dispensing the content of the bags are disclosed. The EP-A-0 541 972 discloses a container with two side-by-side arranged sausage-type foil bags each having an outlet ending in one common outlet. The contents are pressed out by two pistons, each piston acting upon a ring.
However, until now, such cartridges have failed to gain much importance because their operation is unreliable, not user friendly, and the cartridge contents contaminate the device when replacing as well as making it messy for the operator.
Based on this prior art, it is an object of this invention to provide a multiple component, in particular a two-component metering and proportioning device which substantially reduces the problem regarding the disposal of the used cartridges and which allows a reliable, efficient and cost effective operation without contamination of user, and re-usable cartridge and dispensing equipment.